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CNN Live At Daybreak
Interview of George Black, NTSB Investigator; Family Moves On After Engine Lands in Kitchen
Aired November 15, 2001 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: In New York, federal air safety investigators say they have found no evidence of sabotage in the deadly crash of American Airlines Flight 587 on Monday. A cockpit voice recorder offered no evidence of an explosion, but indicated that the pilots complained about the turbulence of another aircraft just before the crash.
And George Black of the National Transportation Safety Board is in New York now to update us on the investigation. Let's start off with the tail section of that plane. We didn't mention that a second ago, but investigators are looking very closely at the tail section of this -- of this plane as it broke off -- the first section to break off of this plane. No indication, no sign, so far from the investigation that it was struck by anything -- right?
GEORGE BLACK, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: That's correct. There are no marks on the fin section or the rudder. We haven't found any other evidence of any impact with any foreign object. It appears to be some sort of an aerodynamic event.
CALLAWAY: Now there were some reports that the fin had some composite materials on it and around it. Is this unusual?
BLACK: It was for the time period that the airplane was made. Nearly all of the tail structure -- the vertical -- the part sticking up that you see that we call the fin, is made from composite materials and honeycombed composite materials.
CALLAWAY: Can you tell us what exactly could make a fin break off like this? I mean this would just have to be some incredible catastrophe. Planes just simply do not break apart like that.
BLACK: Absolutely. There are large safety factors in the designs of all parts of airplanes and so, something would have to exceed the loads -- the design loads for the airplane unless there is some weakened structure in the airplane.
CALLAWAY: There's never been any type of situation like this where a tail fin has broken off -- right?
BLACK: The only accident that I can recall where the tail broke off is actually an Air Force B-52 testing clear air turbulence in the 1960s and that airplane actually recovered and is very different from this airplane, but that's the only one that I can think of.
CALLAWAY: There were some discussion about the turbulence -- some of the so-called weight turbulence. Would that be enough to do something like this?
BLACK: We don't know the answer to that yet. We did extensive weight turbulence testing on the Pittsburgh U.S. Air 427 accident several years ago, and we have the people who worked on that accident here, and we will be applying that knowledge and probably doing some testing to determine the strength of a vortex from a Boeing 747-400, which was the Japan airlines airplane.
CALLAWAY: Now we know that there is a minimum of two minutes between planes in a situation like this. Some reports that perhaps that wasn't the case in this -- in this incident.
BLACK: Well it's two minutes or four nautical miles and our preliminary evaluation of the track of these two airplanes would imply that they were never closer than four nautical miles apart. However, the votices do not disappear immediately after the airplane passes. They linger in the air and drift with the wind and sink. And preliminary -- a preliminary look at the strategic positions of these two airplanes would imply that the vortices from the 747 would be in the approximate area of the track of the American Airlines airplane.
CALLAWAY: Is there any discussion now Mr. Black for the FAA to possibly increase the distance between planes -- the minimum distance?
BLACK: I'm sure they're thinking about it. And they're, of course, a part of our investigation and we talk with them almost hourly. So that's certainly up to them, and our recommendations will be coming later. But I'm sure they're thinking about this.
CALLAWAY: Are you encouraged that they're inspecting now all of these Airbus jets?
BLACK: I think it was an excellent action on the part of American Airlines to be proactive in initiating this inspection process that involved the FAA in that process and they're moving very rapidly. I think that was a very good idea for them.
CALLAWAY: All right, George Black, thank you for joining us. The NTSB investigator. Thank you.
Well the crash of Flight 587 into a New York neighborhood killed all 260 people on board. Five people on the ground are missing and presumed dead. And for another neighborhood family, it was a very close call. CNN's Brian Cabell has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What would you do if a jet engine fell out of the sky onto your home while you were inside? Well if you're Eileen and Kevin McKeon, three nights later you gather with family and friends on your porch, thank God you're alive, and try to forget what you were thinking when the engine came crashing into your kitchen.
EILEEN MCKEON: I thought my life was over, that they were coming to get us again.
CABELL: Eileen, who was blown from the kitchen to the living room by the explosion, thought it was a terrorist attack. Fortunately the couple's two sons, Bradford and Kevin were gone, but four-year old Shannon, along with her dad, was blown out onto the porch. Now the little girl is scared.
MCKEON: She's OK during the day. At nighttime she's frightened.
CABELL: What does she say?
MCKEON: Mommy please don't let the plane hit us again.
CABELL: The kids are staying with friends now while the McKeons try to figure out what to do next. The house is unlivable. It's actually a crime scene. They claimed a few of their possessions, not many. They grab a meal when they can. They're temporarily living with Kevin's mom.
CABELL: Kind of crowded there now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it's not exactly the Ritz, you know.
CABELL: They can laugh after the trauma of Monday because the McKeon family survived and are now being bolstered by those who love them.
KEVIN MCKEON: That was probably the warmest experience of all of this, is to have family come up, surround us. The friends that we have, their friendship, that's our true treasure. We realize that now.
CABELL: And they also realize that despite their friends here --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just thank God they're alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our garage, everything.
CABELL: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to thank God --
CABELL: It's time to leave. They were planning to move to Florida eventually anyway. Now Eileen wants out.
MCKEON: Too many memories are gone. I don't want to stay here. It's time to move on.
CABELL: What do you do after a jet engine crashes into your home? You move out and move on.
Brian Cabell, CNN, Rockaway, New York.
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